Welcome To The Pack

Running. She was running through the woods. Stumbling over the uneven ground and using her bare arms to shelter her face from twigs and branches, well trying to. She felt like she had been hit in the face a lot more than she’d like. But she didn’t have time to worry about that. She had to keep moving. Running over wet leaves and mud on the ground in her bare feet. Why were her feet bare? She couldn’t remember right now. But she knew she wasn’t dressed right for running through the woods in the dark. And my goodness, was it dark! The moon provided enough light to see outlines and shapes around her, not enough to allow her to see her footing she thought as she stood on yet another jaggy bit of rock in the ground. But she had to keep going. Had to keep pushing forward. Keep running. The woods were quiet, or they would be if she could hear anything over the deafening sounds of her breathing. She was panting. Running was most definitely not her thing. She had to stop. Had to breathe. She halted suddenly in the middle of a small clearing and tried to calm her racing heart and stop breathing so loudly. She had to listen. See if what she was running from, because she was definitely running from something, was still there. She couldn’t hear anything. The break in the trees let in a little more light than other parts of these woods. She spun around on the spot. Once. Twice. She couldn’t see anything moving. Couldn’t hear anything moving. She rested her hands on her knees and leant forward to help her try to catch her breath. She heard a loud snapping of a branch behind her and rightened herself at the same time to see a large shadow coming into the clearing from the trees. She turned and started to run again before she had even finished turning her back to the shadow. But she slipped on the damp ground and could instantly feel herself starting to fall mid twist, she put her arms out to break the fall and let out a piercing scream…. Her eyes flew open as she jumped up in bed. She clamped her mouth shut, aware she had just woken from the dream still screaming, her heart beating erratically. She jumped out of bed and started to pace the room. Her hand went up to her hair and she ran her fingers through it jumping when she found something in her hair. It floated to the ground in her bedroom. A leaf. She jumped back from it as if it had electrocuted her and stared at it. Well, she thought, that’s odd….